Post Black Friday Retail Sales Growth Slows

Retail
-ICSC-Goldman Store Sales, Week/Week -2.3%
-ICSC-Goldman Store Sales, Year/Year +3.8%
-Redbook Store Sales, Year/Year +3.2% vs. previous week +5.4%.
-Consumer Metrics Absolute Demand Index slowed starting Dec 1

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S&P and EU
S&P’s threat to downgrade the credit of 15 Eurozone nations is a reminder that the difficult part is the leaders on the various nations selling some sort of austerity to their citizens. Something similar may happen in the U.S. in the near future. The fact that the U.S. is one country with one central bank makes the solution much easier here. One might conclude that the success of Black Friday was at the expense of last week.